Apparatus for automatic scanning of data cards is useful in many fields, for example, card readers in automated teller machines, and card reader/writers employed in vending machines or transportation access turnstiles to read prepaid cards. In the prior art, automated data card scanning apparatus has generally been of the linear scanning variety and a number of different design approaches have been used in the art.
Fully automated data card scanners use a card transport mechanism to pull the data card into the reader and then either drive the card over stationary read or read/write heads or utilize a separate transport mechanism to drive the read/write heads over the data stripes on the data card.
Pass U.S. Pat. No. 3,386,753, Pfost et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,020,325, and Redemacher U.S. Pat. No. 4,879,607 each illustrates a typical prior art linear card reader/writer apparatus in which a card transport mechanism drives the data card into the reader and past a stationary transducer assembly for reading the data on the card and then reverses to drive the card back out of the reader. Many other prior art patents show this type of reader structure. While these designs adequately handle the task of reading and writing data on a data card, they are typically bulky systems which take up a significant volume of space in an overall machine in which they are used. In order for such systems to provide a card swallow feature, the data card must be driven completely to the back of the system and this requires substantial additional space in the machine.
Other data card read/write systems use a card transport mechanism to pull the card into the system and to scan the card past read and write transducers with single direction drive of the card to an exit slot remote from the card insert slot. These systems use a flexible data card medium and typically the card path involves turning the card through a 90 degree angle between the entrance slot and the exit slot. These types of data card read/write systems have been used extensively in rapid transit system turnstiles.
Another type of automatic data card read/write systems involves manual insertion of the card into the card read position, with a transducer system which is then scanned across the data stripe on the card. Killborn U.S. Pat. No. 4,527,052 and Okuno U.S. Pat. No. 4,581,523 are typical examples of this type of system. While the Killborn '052 patent discloses a card swallow feature, it uses a separate drive system to drive the card sideways into a card swallow bin and this separate drive mechanism increases the cost and volume requirement for mounting the card reader mechanism in a machine.
Applications for automated magnetic stripe card read/write systems have expanded dramatically in the past several years. Many manufacturers of vending machines, laundry machines, telephone systems and the like have an interest in using data card read/write systems in their machines, but find it difficult to adapt to the bulkiness and cost of the prior art apparatus which provides fully automated card handling with the card disappearing into the system during handling.
Card swallow features are especially desirable in some applications, such as soft drink vending machines in which prepaid cards of the promotional variety need to be swallowed in order to track the amount of use that they are receiving. In other applications it is desirable to swallow cards that have exhausted their value or that have been detected to be counterfeit or otherwise invalid for use in the machine. Including this feature in a read/write systems typically adds extra volume which cannot be tolerated, especially if the extra volume is taken up in either width or depth of the apparatus, which is the typical case in the prior art.
Accordingly it can readily be appreciated that there is a need in the art for a data card read/write systems which is capable of performing fully automated card transport through the read/write station and can incorporate a card swallow feature within a small additional volume of space.